Isolation is expensive. When you live alone or feel lonely, you pay for convenience (takeout, Ubers).
The most infamous example is Liberia’s civil war (1989–2003). Thousands of teenage girls were abducted and used as fighters, porters, and sexual slaves. When peace came, the UN’s DDR program paid male ex-fighters $300 and vocational training. Female survivors—many of whom had been recruited at 18 or younger—were deemed “camp followers” and excluded. One survivor testified: “They said we were just the girlfriends. But we carried the guns and the bullets, then carried their babies. We got nothing.” 18 female war lousy deal link